Effective PM and BA Role Collaboration

The role of the business analyst (BA) has seen rapid growth over the past decade, and for good reason. Business analysis is a hybrid function that evolved from the systems analysis role over several decades into one where the individuals performing it have both a good understanding of the business and of the IT and software used to support the business. One set of activities that is the BA’s specialty is the eliciting and management of accurate product requirements. Recent research has shown that when this BA role is properly executed in collaboration or partnership with the project or program manager (PM), higher quality product and project requirements are produced and managed resulting in higher success rates, with solutions that deliver business value and products and services that better satisfy stakeholder and customer needs. While leading experts all agree that collaboration between the PM and BA roles is key, the matter of how remains a subject of debate.This innovative guide shows how to address the challenges associated with the definitions of these roles and the gaps, intersections, overlaps, and touch points between the PM and BA to reduce waste, improve efficiency and effectiveness, and increase benefits to the organization. It demonstrates how this can be achieved without adding resources, or going through duplication of effort, waste, and misunderstandings that lead to failure. This essential reference evaluates the PM and BA roles current contrasting perceptions, defines the roles they should fulfill, and describes how to ensure the PM/BA partnership is maintained from the business case, through to project initiation, execution, implementation and post-project evaluation.The authors provide readers with concepts and approaches for developing a partnership between the PM and BA roles, within their own context and specific challenges, in a manner which has proven to result in a synergistic, functionally harmonious relationship that maximizes the business value these roles produce for the organization.